The Chairman of the House's Oversight and Government Reform Committee
today demanded that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice respond
to 11 outstanding requests for information sent by his office since
2003. The letters primarily concerned claims, later proved erroneous,
on the threat posed to the United States by Saddam Hussein's government
in the run up to the Iraq War.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) warned Dr. Rice that a failure to respond
to his committee's inquiries would undermine Constitutional governance.

"Refusing to allow officials to testify before Congress...or
ignoring congressional requests for information, as you apparently
ignored my inquiries, are not consistent with our constitutional
system of government," said the Committee's Chairman in a letter
released today.

Waxman's letter stated that he was seeking to learn more about
a variety of issues from the Secretary of State, including her "role
in the President's false assertion that Iraq was seeking uranium
from Niger."

The California Democrat also explained that he had sent Dr. Rice
16 inquiries since 2003, but only 5 of the letters, that were also
signed by committee Republicans, had received responses. "Under
the Bush Administration, several agencies followed a policy of not
responding to minority party requests," Waxman stated.

Waxman was particularly concerned with the false claim made by
President George W. Bush in the 2003 State of the Union address
concerning Iraq's efforts to acquire uranium from Africa, as well
as supporting statements by administration officials.

He also made note of other letters to which Rice had not responded:
the White House's treatment of classified information; her appointment
of Richard Jones, a former deputy to Coalition Provisional Authority
head Paul Bremer, to a new position while he was under federal investigation;
the political considerations that went into the inclusion of nongovernmental
representatives in US delegations at international conferences;
and, the possibility of using needle exchange programs to fight
blood-borne diseases like HIV/AIDS.

For the Iraq letters, Waxman requested a response by March 23 of
this year.

RAW STORY was awaiting response from the White House and the State
Department at press time.